Benedict XVI: Beware of Marginalizing Religion

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15: 18,19)

Those of you who have been following this blog know very well that I constantly express concern over the breaking of moral values in our present global society. More than a few times have I raised red flags over the fact that religious people are marginalized and sometimes even persecuted because their moral values are inconvenient in a materialistic society bent on consumerism.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, during his recent ground-breaking visit to London, expressed similar concerns. He urged civil leaders to consider religion a "vital contributor" to nations. He further said to diplomats, academics, entrepeneurs and religious leaders that religion "is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation."

"In this light," he further said, "I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance. There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere," affirmed the Holy Father at Westminster Hall.

"There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are those who argue - paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination - that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience." He added with concern.

"These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square. I would invite all of you, therefore, within your respective spheres of influence, to seek ways of promoting and encouraging dialogue between faith and reason at every level of national life. Your readiness to do so is already implied in the unprecedented invitation extended to me today," the Pope observed. "And it finds expression in the fields of concern in which your government has been engaged with the Holy See."

The Holy Father further described the role of religion in political debate as "to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles. This 'corrective' role of religion vis-à-vis reason is not always welcomed," the Pontiff acknowledged, "though, partly because distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create serious social problems themselves."

"And in their turn" he added, "these distortions of religion arise when insufficient attention is given to the purifying and structuring role of reason within religion. It is a two-way process. Without the corrective supplied by religion, though, reason too can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that fails to take full account of the dignity of the human person. Such misuse of reason, after all, was what gave rise to the slave trade in the first place and to many other social evils, not least the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century."

"This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world of faith - the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief - need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization," he included.

In enphasizing the ongoing cooperation between the UK government and the Holy See in several fields as an example of the aforementioned cooperative effort between religion and government, Benedict XVI stated, "I hope and pray that this relationship will continue to bear fruit, and that it will be mirrored in a growing acceptance of the need for dialogue and respect at every level of society between the world of reason and the world of faith. For such cooperation to be possible, religious bodies -- including institutions linked to the Catholic Church -- need to be free to act in accordance with their own principles and specific convictions based upon the faith and the official teaching of the Church."

"In this way," he asserted, "such basic rights as religious freedom, freedom of conscience and freedom of association are guaranteed."

The Holy Father couldn't be more correct. I think we took millenia to develop moral codes and ethics that enable human society and make it viable for us to live alongside one another in some measure of civility and harmony, and now that is placed in geopardy by the "priests of consumerism"; the radical secularists.

Say what you will, but the moral values proposed by religion have been paramount in this process of creating a viable society. The so-called "liberties" that people take as a novelty today are nothing more than a return to the chaotic demi-societies of the ancient world, when people valued power and worshiped riches and sought only the excuse to pursue their own convenience by force of arms. We evolved from that into something better and now some want to throw it away.

If we want a global society to work: Keep religion. Keep the Faith.